On the Radar, 11/15/08

The weekend is an excellent time to catch up on the latest news. Here are some things rolling around the internet that piqued my interest.

I had to edit my post to include the latest cartoon by Hathor the Cow Goddess. This one really resonates with me in a funny and sick way. It’s so true . . . except that I never made it out of the hospital bed, unless you count changing beds to be wheeled into surgery . . . If wishes were horses, I’d have followed my instincts and not left my house that night. We were fine until the midwife broke my water. <sigh>

AMA Scope of Practice Initiative Advances – I get so focused on what ACOG and the AMA is trying to do to childbirth, that I forget the far reaching affects of their actions. This post was written by the American Optometric Association. I think it’s a good one to study to get another perspective on expanding SOPP. Plus, it makes me thing that we need to forge ties with other “secondary level” practitioners, hire our own marketing teams, and put together a real professional campaign against the AMA.

Can you give yourself a few minutes every day for the next 15 days to practice relaxation and yoga? I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, especially since I’ve started reading Living Buddha, Living Christ by Thich Nhat Hanh. One of my students let me borrow it. While I’m at it, let me share one wonderful thing I’ve read from the book thus far:

Peace is all around us – in the world and in nature – and within us – in our bodies and our spirits. once we learn to touch this peace, we will be healed and transformed. (23-24)

It’s so hard for me to recognize peace around me, and, in a way, to embrace the healing and transformation that is promised by embracing peace. I keep being led to practicing mindfulness, peace, meditation, yoga, being present, but I keep resisting it. How about you? And will you also take mamascoffeetime’s challenge to practice yoga? If you have a little one at home, try the Animal Adventure!

I found a petition, “Practicing midwives Should Be Licensed and Carry Insurance.” I sighed in sadness and exasperation when I read it. It really stinks that this family lost their baby in this manner, but shouldn’t they have been aware through the interview process if their midwife was licensed and if she carried insurance? I’m not trying to point fingers back at this family, but these are such basic questions. For some homebirthers, it’s important that their midwives carry the proper credentials. Others recognize that midwives don’t always care about formal recognition for what they do. They help babies and their families at one of the most critical and beautiful times in their lives. A piece of paper doesn’t mean that they’re a good or bad midwife any more than a medical degree ensures that you have a good doctor. And to require midwives to carry insurance is to ask them (and us) to continue to support a system that is completely FUBAR! Anyone who has suffered from major medical problems – even if they have “good” insurance – can attest to that.

The statement also calls for evidence-based practices in maternity care, and for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Medical Association “to strike those resolutions that deny childbearing women the autonomy and rights that medical professionals, educators, and women’s health advocates have historically endorsed.”

And last but not least . . . a new website and blog to which I will subscribe: The Unnecessarian which I found via CfM and Birth, Interrupted. Read the latest blog entry and you’ll see that they’re already holding the medical community’s feet to the fire.